Meetings

Grab Bag Meeting. Have members grab a number out of a bag. In place of names on the agenda, have numbers. The numbers drawn from the bag correspond to functions.

	Party Politics. Have two-party elections for officer's elections. Sling mud with the best of them. Promise the moon, deliver the dust. But remember that the winners of any election are the members.
	Super Bowl of Table Topics. A marathon table topics session, with evaluations.
	Heckle and Jeckle. Bait the speakers. But remember, this is to help the speakers learn to deal with disturbances in the audience.
	Themes. All Toastmasters meeting have an associated theme or thought for the day. Ask speakers to prepare along the same lines, perhaps even including costumes.
	Socials. Above and beyond the call of duty. You may want to schedule an occasional social affair like a picnic, family night, boss's day, etc.
	Interview Day. Have various Toastmasters interview the speakers, Table Topics speakers, or other Toastmasters.
	Substitute Day. Set up the meeting so anyone on the agenda can call on someone else to substitute at the last minute.
	To Tell A Lie. Pose a question to a Toastmaster, then have the audience vote on whether the Toastmaster answered the question truthfully or not.
	Educational Meetings. Schedule a full meeting with topics from Success Leadership or Successful Club programs. Choose other topics of interest to Toastmasters in you club.
	Ghost Stories. Have the speakers and Table Topics revolve around stories of things that go "bump" in the night.

2. Rick Clements, ATM-B VP-ED, from Tualatin Achievers wrote:

   A couple weeks ago, we had an all hot seat meeting. Everyone draws their duty out of the hat. (Anyone who has given less than three speeches can re-draw.) One of the speakers manages a woodworking store. He had kit with him that he showed how to assemble. The other speaker prepares taxes. She had an article of court cases the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) had lost. She talked about each case in the article including her personal experience. I drew Topicmaster and did a round robin discussion on recruiting new members. It's a challenging meeting we do every year or two.

3. One thing our club does is an occasional "backwards meeting." We start with the President dismissing us and end with his welcome. As the meeting proceeds, it becomes increasingly challenging to offer "evaluations" for speeches that haven't even been given yet, table topics talks for topics that haven't been assigned yet, and other such minor problems! (Of course, we do give each speaker an accurate written evaluation after the meeting, so Toastmaster's educational benefits are not lost.) If you try this off-beat meeting format, you'll find it's most enjoyable.
   
4. Twice a year we have a club auction rather than Table Topics. Everyone is invited to bring in some trivial sort of item to auction off. (For example, last time I brought in a can of soda, a candy bar, and a package of cheese & crackers. I auctioned it off as a "complete, nutritious lunch." I even had it in a "lunch box" -- brown bag!) Because all the money collected goes into our club treasury, we sometimes raise $10 or $20 for a bauble worth about $2 down at the local Wal-mart. The auctioneer for each item is the person who brought it in, so we all get a chance to make a 2-3 minute speech. It's great fun and you can raise a bit of cash for your club treasury.
   
5. At each of our two District Toastmasters Leadership Institutes (Winter 97), I lead a brainstorming session. One of the areas we worked with was Meeting Ideas. Here are the best ideas from those sessions:
   

   	All Table Topics Night or All Ice Breakers Night
   	Appreciation Day (Boss, Best Friend, Old Toastmasters, etc.)
   	Charade Night
   	Debates
   	Only Educational Speeches (or Programs) from TLI
   	Evaluate Professional Speaker from Video (President, Newscaster, etc.)
   	Film the Speakers
   	Get Tape of Past International Contest and Evalute Speakers
   	Grab-Bag Meeting
   	Have table topics or the meeting roles taped to the bottom of the chairs
   	Conduct Parts of Meeting In Poetry
   	Use Round-Robin Evaluations
   	Singing Speech Night
   	Skit Night
   	Speaker/Evaluator Exchange with Another Club
   	Toast Each Other Night
   	Conduct a "Trial of the Big Bad Wolf." The Table Topics speakers are witnesses, speakers are the defense, and evaluators are the prosecution.
   	Have a club "Joke-a-thon" for one meeting.
   	Have a costume meeting and give a short speech about the costume you're wearning.

This Document Last Modified on April 29, 1998.